60 Minutes segment: Google is a monopoly without question

In last night’s widely anticipated “60 Minutes” segment on Google, the program asks, “How Did Google Get So Big?” The answer the interviewees generally give is: by engaging in illegal manipulation of search results in an effort to defeat competitors and promote its own content.

One of the interviewees, Google critic and antitrust lawyer Gary Reback, argues that Google is a monopoly without question. He says during the segment that the company has a “mind-boggling degree of control over our entire society.”

Yelp’s Jeremy Stoppelman is another featured interviewee who gives journalist Steve Kroft a tour through Google’s local search results. Stoppelman argues that if you’re seen as competitive by Google the company “will snuff you out.” He also contends that in the current climate, it wouldn’t be possible today to build Yelp.